FIFA 07 review

Is it the most mocked ongoing game series of all time? Possibly. Through its history its been mocked for not being Sensible Soccer, not being ISS and not being Pro Evolution. Its spin-off, FIFA Street, was mocked and its currently being mocked for being developed in Canada, home to the world's 82nd best national team. It's probably fair, what with FIFA '97's ability to let goals go in directly from corners and some utterly terrible versions appearing for the Saturn and N64. Recently, though, things haven't been so bad. '05 was entirely tolerable, and although '06 got significantly worse, it's still possible to be hopeful for a good game here.Firstly, all the usual FIFA benefits are here; the real player names (and more importantly, the teams they play for) are present and plentiful - or, to copy and paste the press release, 510 teams from 27 leagues in 20 nations all with correct kits and badges. Most importantly out of that little lot is that all English teams are represented right down to League 2, which is mighty impressive. Whichever way you look at that, it's a very good thing - for a supporter, playing with Sheffield Wednesday is more fun than playing with an incorrectly named premiership team. It is a little let down by the lack of stadiums, with only one or two in the lower divisions.You've got to hand it to them for the presentation too. The most important part of which, the graphics, are good and it is amazing how well they compare to the Xbox360 version, especially on a standard definition television. In fact, given the choice, it's even possible to say the Xbox version is preferable as it looks grittier and less smoothed over. Certainly there is nothing to complain about on the graphics front. No problems with animation either - in fact it's extremely impressive, especially off the ball with players waving, dodging, stumbling, bumping into each other, falling, panting and generally acting very realistically. While there are a good range of camera angles, they all seem a little too zoomed out, but that is personal preference. Menus are all workable, although they are much, much more complicated than they should be. If you're connected to Live, you'll also get a scrolling update of real-life action - reminding you that, yes, Chelsea did win last match. Damn. An excellent little feature.Commentary is... acceptable. By the usual standards, it's quite good, but it is soon repeating, and the game is better for turning it off. With ITV's Clive Tyldesley at the helm, turning off the commentary becomes one of the more realistic parts of the game, just like watching it on TV. EA are also quite proud to show off that they've got the crowd reacting to the on pitch action, which to an extent they do, but really it boils down to loud whistling as the game reaches the 89th minute. And of course, EA TRAX dive at any opportunity to start playing. An odd feature is that the game downloads podcasts to play as the default background noise to menus - interesting once, but soon annoying thanks to incredibly dull game producers being interviewed. It is nonetheless a very clever feature.The extra modes are all what you'd expect, with the career mode being far from Football Manager but good enough to make the single-player mode worthwhile. All the standard options are there as well, plus a 'Lounge' option for multiplayer shenanigans. Even online there isn't much to complain about. There are a few connection problems getting into games, but once you're there it works perfectly with not a single jot of lag. One concern is the lack of players - late evening shouldn't be a dead time, but there were only 140 people online (and it seems they all want to be AC Milan). There's also a nice extra mode where you choose your team and play following their real-life schedule against fans of the opposing team, with whichever team winning overall getting the three points. It's not perfect, with generally little to do, but it is a neat inclusion.So really, everything is in place, so what about the game itself? The fact it's been saved until the end of the review must mean that this is where it is revealed to be terrible, surely? Well, in this case, no. It's actually pretty good, and while it might not be the best football game, it is far from the worst. It's playable, easy to get into and actually has a bit of depth - you'll still be finding new tricks after quite a few matches. Score-lines tend to be quite high, there is an odd rhythm to the games that doesn't feel natural, and sometimes it looks a bit too much like school-ground football with too many players crowding the ball, but these are very small issues. Most games pass without problems and with you feeling in control, despite occasional defensive problems against the best players. The AI works well on your team and doesn't feel like it cheats as much as Pro Evo does, and generally plays fair (although they do get suspiciously quick equalisers sometimes). In short, it's not perfect but it's more than adequate.And that sums it up really. There are annoyances, such as poor menus, but these are balanced out by the excellent online integration and animation. The important part, the football itself, is well worth playing and wrapped up in so many teams it becomes very tempting. Is it the best football game out there? Not quite, but if this is the last Xbox FIFA, which is entirely possible, it has managed to go out on a high. One thing is for certain - this year the Xbox version of FIFA is not to be mocked.